Rafferty: Football braced to tackle downsizing

Published 5:45 pm, Friday, November 29, 2013

It's the first Sunday in December. Thanksgiving's over and what are you doing? It's likely you are -- as they say -- gettin' ready for some football. The mostly irrelevant Giants and Jets play this evening and afternoon, while the Patriots look to pummel some Texans. Big day. There are fantasy teams to be finalized, leftovers to be consumed, jerseys to be worn and couches to be potatoed. It's a comforting ritual that spans generations. Friday Night Lights. Any Given Sunday. It feeds our military fetish and let's us thump our chests in a manly way. It's a part of who we are.

But an unsettling thing is happening on the way to global football domination. There's evidence mounting that the violent nature of the sport may be having an impact on parent's decisions to let their kids play football. Pop Warner Football is the largest and oldest youth football program in America, and since 2010 they've seen enrollment drop by 9.5 percent. In case you think that's just a statistical anomaly, a study from the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association recorded an 11 percent youth football enrollment drop over the same period. So how does this relate to the violent nature of the game? Pop Warner's chief medical officer told ESPN recently that he believes the No. 1 reason for the decline is a concern over head injuries.

Now connect the dots (something several former professional players can no longer do). Stories about head trauma and the long-term negative effects suffered by NFL players are headline news. The NFL settles a billion-dollar lawsuit with former players who say that playing football leads to brain damage. Parents are reading and hearing all this and are concerned. Around 70 percent of all NFL players played Pop Warner and now there are fewer Pop Warner registrations. Hmmm, what's next?

"Nothing," says Jimmy Loughran, president of the Greenwich Youth Football League who sees a statistical blip, not a retreat from the game. "Kids are specializing in one sport earlier in life, and year-round sports are capturing many of our kids who used to play football, as well as lacrosse or soccer."

Loughran acknowledges that registrations are down a bit recently, but it's nothing alarming. "We're a safe, instructional league with almost 700 families involved in our program. This year, on my team alone, out of 23 players, not one missed a game due to a football injury."

But Greenwich parents have taken notice of the news reports, and what might have been a "shake it off" whack to the head in the past now leads to a trip to the ER.

"The word `concussion' raises more of a red flag these days," says Dr. Chris Davison, director of Emergency Medicine at Greenwich Hospital. "More people now come in after a head trauma, and we are becoming more conservative in terms of getting kids back on the field, but much of what we are seeing is at the lower end of the scale."

Still, the extraordinarily run, all-volunteer GYFL is responding to those concerns.

"We've already initiated steps to make the game safer," says Loughran. "Increasing the number of play counts per child actually allows for more rotation; and downplaying rivalries and regular season victories allows us to focus on proper skill-building."

Next season, the GYFL will also be a full partner with the NFL's "Heads Up" program that teaches greater concussion and dehydration awareness. "Each one of our six leagues will have a Player Safety Coach trained and certified by the NFL," Loughran says. "These Safety Coaches will then train all our team coaches, as well as players and parents on how to play the game without having to use the head as a weapon or a target."

In the middle of the 20th century the three most popular sports in this country were baseball, boxing and horse racing. Baseball persists but the sweet science and playing the ponies are now niche sports, relegated to the sports background. Could football join them in athletic purgatory? If enough parents fixate on the dangers of the sport, and leagues don't follow the GYFL model and take steps to turn down the violence and potential for serious damage, maybe. But it's unlikely. Remember, it's who we are.